As the woman planted both feet on the ground, Steele reached up to the doorway again and, this time, offered his hand to a little girl.

Wyatt couldn’t contain his surprise and released a low whistle. Maybe Steele’s wife had decided to come west with their child after all, although hadn’t Steele talked about a son, not a daughter?

The girl bounded down, her bonnet pushed back, revealing long, loose hair the color of a newborn fawn. Petite and pretty, the child smiled her thanks to Steele before skipping away.

“Astrid, stay close.” The woman spun after the child and revealed her face. Her hair was the same light brown as the child’s, and her features were just as pretty but fuller and slightly rounder.

Astrid didn’t heed her mother and frisked away from the stagecoach in the direction of Simpkin’s General Store.

“Astrid, please.” The woman grabbed a fistful of her skirt and picked up her pace, then cast a glance over her shoulder at Steele.

Steele smiled and waved her on. “Go and explore. You know where to find me.”

She nodded, her expression emanating gratefulness, before she hustled after her child.

Stroking his mustache, Steele watched the young woman until she disappeared into the store behind the little girl.

Wyatt needed to stop staring, but his curiosity got the better of him. If this woman wasn’t Steele’s wife, then who was she? Couldn’t be his mistress. Steele had never struck Wyatt as the type of man who’d cheat on his wife, no matter how much he had a hankering for a woman.

As if sensing the scrutiny, Steele’s gaze swung to Wyatt, where he still stood in the middle of the road. Steele touched the brim of his bowler in greeting.

Wyatt repeated the action.

“Don’t look at me like that, McQuaid,” Steele called.

“Like what?” Blast it all. Why hadn’t he walked away before Steele had caught him staring?

“Like I’m doing something I shouldn’t be.”

“She ain’t your wife, is she?”

“No, of course not.” Steele huffed.

“I took you for a God-fearing man who took his marriage vows seriously.”

“And I am.”

“Then what are you doing with a pretty lady like that?” Wyatt glanced at the dusty window of the general store but couldn’t see inside past the grime to the woman in question.

Steele pressed his lips together and crossed toward him. “Do you think she’s pretty?”

Wyatt hadn’t seen her long, but it had been enough to know she was a real beauty. “A man’d have to be blind not to think so.”

Steele halted in front of him. The dust from the journey lightened the black of his suit coat to a charcoal gray. “Good. Then I want you to marry her.”

Chapter 3